Ice Storm — Orange, New York

2008-12-11 to 2008-12-12 · Orange, New York

Wider weather episode

Low pressure over the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the evening of December 10, tracked northeast and up into the Carolinas by the following evening of December 11. In response to a strong upper trough approaching from the west, a secondary low developed along the Mid Atlantic coast during the evening and rapidly deepened overnight. By the following morning, the low had deepened to an estimated 994 mb, just to the south and east of Montauk Point. A transient high over eastern Canada provided enough cold air across northern portions of the Lower Hudson Valley for a prolonged period of freezing rain during the late morning hours of December 11 through the early morning hours of December 12. Thereafter, enough warm air worked in for a complete changeover to rain with several inches of rainfall.

Automated observations in tandem with pictures from trained spotters supported ice accumulations around one half inch across the northern half of Orange county.

At 0800EST, there was a major automobile accident on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge in Orange County with eight injuries. There were also scattered reports of trees and power lines down with the American Red Cross opening a shelter in Central Valley the following day.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 147290. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.